South Coast expansion on track despite withering MBTA review

Erik Potter

Monday

Nov 9, 2009 at 12:01 AMNov 9, 2009 at 9:06 AM

State Department of Transportation spokesman Colin Durrant said the project is not just a transportation project, but an economic development project that is “critical to the development of the South Coast.”

The state remains committed to the $1.4 billion to $1.9 billion South coast Rail project in the wake of a withering review of the MBTA.

Released last week, the report details the dire financial straights the MBTA is in — with loads of deferred debt and deferred maintenance dragging it into virtual insolvency. Indeed, the authors concluded that, were the MBTA a private corporation, it would likely declare bankruptcy.

A recommendation at the end of the report suggests that the MBTA should “slow expansion until the safety and maintenance priorities can be addressed.”

Those maintenance priorities are $3.2 billion worth of needed repairs that were identified last year to keep the system in a “state of good repair.” Only 6 percent of those — $203 million — were actually funded.

Just to keep the backlog from growing larger, the report estimated the MBTA would need to spend an additional $224 million annually on maintenance.

The state has shelved plans to expand the Silver Line in Boston, but Gov. Deval Patrick, while promising not to raise fares and to tackle the repair backlog, has not been deterred from pursuing the South Coast Rail project.

The South Coast transit project would provide rapid transit service between Boston and Fall River and New Bedford. There are three proposed routes, one of which could be selected later next year:

Extension of the existing Stoughton train line through Easton, Raynham and Taunton, after which the line would divide into two tracks to the two South Coast cities.

Extension of a rail line from Attleboro to Taunton, then south on the two tracks.

An express bus on a dedicated lane on Route 24 and Interstate 93.

Asked about the critical report, Department of Transportation spokesman Colin Durrant said the project is not just a transportation project, but an economic development project that is “critical to the development of the South Coast.”

“It’s not slated for at least seven years or so, so also by then we would expect our plan to deal with finances will” be working, said.

Critics wonder, however, how the state can follow through on that promise.

“There’s no basis in reality for that comment,” Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said. “The T’s finances are going to be under pressure for decades.”

Widmer said cost estimates for operating the South Coast Rail extension range from $15 million to $20 million a year.

“When you have an agency that is hemorrhaging and can’t even maintain its current infrastructure, ... that’s where the funding has to go,” Widmer said.

Donald McKinnon, chairman of the Raynham Board of Selectmen, said the MBTA ought to postpone the project.

“Everything in the town of Raynham is on the back burner until this (economic) situation straightens itself out, including salary adjustments and growth,” McKinnon said. “To say that the state should (put this) on the back burner is a given.

“This is a logical decision that any prudent person would do,” he said. “No one should do a $2 billion project if they can’t balance their budget.”

Durrant promised that the state will release a funding plan next year that will identify a mix of federal, state, local and private money to pay for the rail expansion to Fall River and New Bedford.

And the completion date is still 2016 or early 2017. “Yeah, that hasn’t changed,” Durrant said.

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